Don’t take it personally

Don’t take it personally

Some of the above point touch on this one, as well, but it needs it’s own paragraph because it is, essentially, the one tool that effectively protects you from all the toxic you experience at work. This maxim is the second agreement of Don Miguel Ruiz’s classic book, The Four Agreements.

“Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you,” writes Ruiz. “What they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the agreements they have in their own minds… Taking things personally makes you easy prey for these predators, the black magicians… But if you do not take it personally, you are immune in the middle of hell.”

Just reading those sentences frees me from any prison of hurt I’m feeling.